Hydra 52 HD + T5 Settings

[Seminoles76]

A couple of pics of my current setup. I'll refrain from adding the one of my cabinet with the Apex and cable management lol. My rock work was much better but looks a little off since I added all the little pieces of live rock. I'll probably try and rearrange that a bit after the live rock seeds the rest Pukani.

 

[Moonrock]

Sorry, Just got home from work. Here's what they look like. This is taken with an iPhone X. If there's a better way to get a picture let me know.

The picture with the super actinic on the left is pair with the super purple

The picture with the super actinic on the right is pair with the aqua blue

I only have 3 Hydra 52's BUT i wish I had 4. when the T5's turn off you can see 2 little black spots in between the hydra's. It's only up high for the first 3 inches or so but you can see it if you look close enough. I could easily raise the lights to make it less noticeable but the T5's being 6-8" off the water is a good spot and don't want them any higher. I've been considering selling my hydra's and getting the radion g4's.

Here's the programming for the T5's. They come with 2 power cables (one for each bank of two) but I hooked them up to the same plug on the EB (apex)

T5 Configuration:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 11:00 to 18:00 Then ON
If Tmp > 82.0 Then OFF

I keep them on for a total of 7 hours during the day. If you use the AI file i provided above it will match with this programming. That way when the first peak comes on the lights the T5's will turn on with it.

 

[Moonrock]

I would say the Purple plus is more of a light pink/purple and the aqua blue is more of a white with a tint of blue. My second choice was going to be 2- actinic's and 2- super purples. I figured if I wanted more white or blue I could have used the hydra's to get more of those specific channels with the LEDs.

I love the trigger systems sapphire 39 sump. I also have an emerald cube that's sitting in storage from my old tank. They are good quality. The reason I went with an external skimmer was so I wouldn't have to deal with the water level messing around with the skimmer. The skimmer I had seamed to be really sensitive with water level and if it would overflow, all the nastiness would fall right back into the tank. Have you ever had that issue? I see you have a stand on yours. I never had one but maybe it could have helped. Ever since I moved to a recirculating external skimmer, I'm never ever going back. It also let me open my sump to have a much bigger area for a refugium. Is that sand or miracle mud your running? did you have that when you ran the triton method? I think i read somewhere that they didn't recommend it so I got rid of all my mud.

 

[Seminoles76]

Thanks for the pictures. I love the trigger sump as well. Thanks for the info on the lights. I run the Ice cap K2 200 Skimmer and I love it. It's been the most set and forget skimmer I have owned. Pulls great skim.....wet or dry. I have had skimmers that were sensitive to everything under the sun to include just feeding a food and they would overflow.
That is a little sand and some Fiji mud in my sump. They were not there while i was running Triton. After I got off Triton I was convinced dry rock was my problem so I started trying to add anything to the tank that would bring some microfauna and life into the tank. I run Bare Bottom as well so I basically had a pile of dry rock with no sand bed. I'm trying to post some pics of my acropora to show you what happened in the great die off.

 

[Moonrock]

I went away from Triton because I had loaded up with all SPS and lost everything I had basically. I dropped SPS in at about the three month mark and they were gone by about the 6 to 7 month mark. They never encrusted and just melted after a couple of months. Tank is currently at about 8 months. I have only a couple SPS frags holding on right now that aren't doing anything. This was the first time I had tried Triton, LED's and Dry rock....so I basically narrowed my problems down to one of of those three things. I have always used live rock and always ran T5, and all my SPS tanks prior to this one flourished. So...I said, let's try and get back to what you used to do which is regular 2 part....I also added about twenty pounds of live rock, and I am going to add T5 back in with the aquatic life. Right now, I saw your configuration and thought it would be good to get to know you since our tanks are similar and both at about the same stage. I also will probably go with the same bulb config that you did.

Did you run Core7 or Base Elements? I'm going to guess you weren't using the other methods correct?

When I went with Triton, I removed my UV light, redid some plumbing and added extra pumps to get the 10x turnover rate that recommended. Did you have a 10x turn over ?

did you have the same size fuge you have now? Was it full to the brink or lightly packed? Did you keep your miracle mud/sand ? I can't tell what's at the bottom of the fuge area.

When you were on the triton method did you test your ALK to make sure it stayed around the 7-8 mark?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm just curious as to what went wrong. Everyone else I've seen/talked to has had major success with Triton. I saw FishOfHex on youtube and he had a small cube on the triton method and his SPS encrusted very well from what the video says. Just curious why your SPS wasn't doing to well when others on the triton method have had good success without T5's and just LED's.

 

[Moonrock]

Thanks for the pictures. I love the trigger sump as well. Thanks for the info on the lights. I run the Ice cap K2 200 Skimmer and I love it. It's been the most set and forget skimmer I have owned. Pulls great skim.....wet or dry. I have had skimmers that were sensitive to everything under the sun to include just feeding a food and they would overflow.
That is a little sand and some Fiji mud in my sump. They were not there while i was running Triton. After I got off Triton I was convinced dry rock was my problem so I started trying to add anything to the tank that would bring some microfauna and life into the tank. I run Bare Bottom as well so I basically had a pile of dry rock with no sand bed. I'm trying to post some pics of my acropora to show you what happened in the great die off.

ahh, I had a tall 75G before this. pictures below, and I had an extremely deep sand bed. It was like 6 inches deep and the rock from that tank I moved into my 180. When I first got my 180 I actually piped both tanks together and let them run for a month going into the same sump. Then I moved the rock from the tall 75g to the 180 and removed the 75G from the sump. Then I replaced the emerald sump with the sapphire 39 a month after that. Overall the coral seemed to do great on the 75G and I believe it was due to the 6" sand bed honestly. you can see one of my acan colonies and how big that thing got fairly quickly.

I also attached a picture of the 180 without the T5 lights. Can you see what I'm talking about with the dark spots in between the lights? That's why I added the T5's. I wanted those dark spots gone and my only 2 options were add T5 lights or another LED. Luckily the T5's did a great job filling everything in. It totally changed the look on the tank entirely.

 

[Seminoles76]

No problem for the questions.

I ran Core7. When I ran it I only had LED. Now I have two LET T5 supplements running Blue +.

I had 10X turnover with the fuge before the skimmer. The fuge was the same as it is now but no sand or mud, and it had Chaeto vice Caluerpa.

Alkalinity was always in the 7-8DKH range. It did dip low to 7.0 on a couple occasions as I am in the Navy and have to leave for a week at a time here and there.

One of the major problems I faced in the beginning was I could not keep nutrients in the tank. NO3 and PO4 always tested zero with no algae growth on the rocks or glass. I again attribute that to dry rock and bare bottom setup at the start of tank. I finally started dosing both NO3 and PO4 and got them to show on test kits (Hanna and Salifert).

I'm sure the Triton method is great and when I pulled it I had convinced myself that I had to get back to what I had done that brought success in my previous tanks.

I have asked myself over and over what could have gone wrong and the one thing I keep coming back to is dry Pukani and bare bottom.

For some reason I can't upload the pics of all the dead acropora. I'll get if figured out and upload them. Essentially, they all melted from the tips and then just went down. Losing flesh from the tips confused me as well because that is somewhat associated with high alk spikes which I never had. I test alk every day.

 

[Seminoles76]

That Acan is nice. Yeah.....so essentially you moved established rock in to your 180. My Pukani was dry bones from BRS. I cured it and in it went with bare bottom. There was absolutely no life at all in the tank and I think that was the ultimate problem. I had a couple acros hold on and a monti or two that survived. I have a red planet that is now encrusting so I think I may be getting close to putting some acros in. I just want to get the Aquatic life in prior to that with the right bulb combo.

Do you have two center braces on that 180? Mine looked the same way with a brace before I added the two T5's.

 

[Moonrock]

now that you mention the "melting" I remembered I did have one that seemed like it melted. Attached is a picture of when I started the triton method and the picture where it looks all "melted" is as of 5 minutes ago. Is that what you mean? It happened to 3 frags of mine, but nothing else. I didn't have ALK swings either but now I'm curious why it happened.

I always tested 0 for no3 and po4 so I added more fish and started to feed real heavy. The two purple tangs I bought came with lateral line and once I started to feed them heavily it went away. now they are bright and colorful and don't even have a scar. My local fish store ran a sale and I got 2 purple tangs for $140 so I couldn't complain. They did have the lines on the side and head but luckily feeding them heavy seemed to cure it. My wife stays at home all day so I got her to feed them up to 5 times a day for a month or two and it brought my no3,po4 up a bit. now I try to keep my no3 around 2-5 and po4 a bit above 0. did you try adding more fish and feeding them more so they create more poop in exchange ? lol

 

[Seminoles76]

lol. Yeah I added extra fish....I even threw in a hippo tang which are feeing monster. I was feeding four times a day and reef chili at night and still zeros on the kits. I would also try and talk my wife into feeding the tank which may or may not have happened.

That pick of short acropora on the left is exactly what I am talking about. All of them did it and it seemed nothing I did would stop it. I believe as soon as I started dosing NO3 and PO4 the melting stopped. If I would have just dosed earlier I may have stopped the mass die off. At the time I was thinking maybe its dry rock, maybe it's triton and thus the reason for the changes.

I am still at a point where I have to dose Neo Phos phosphate. If I don't, Phosphate will be the limiting factor and the little coral I have left will start the melting and shedding of skin. If I dose the phosphate all is well. Reef chili is another that will finally bump phosphate but the amount of it that I have to feed will now raise Nitrates up to far so I am back to a normal feeding regime and just keep dosing the phosphate. Essentially, I think the dry rock and bare bottom caused and extremely long time for the tank to get to equilibrium.

 

[jsker]

Great reading nice builds, both of you @Seminoles76 and @Jon Granados

 

[Seminoles76]

Great reading nice builds, both of you @Seminoles76 and @Jon Granados

Thanks Jsker. Good learning experience on the ones that go wrong!

 

[Moonrock]

Any idea on why the coral's "melted" ? Anyone have any idea.

What do you think about Radion's vs Hydra's?

Considering on selling my Hydra's and getting Radion's. What do you think?

 

[Seminoles76]

Awesome man it’s great to see more of these hybrid setups, excited for the new setup. I also just received and assembled my aquatic life 61” fixture. Running modified ab+ as well with two Hydra 52HD. Can’t wait to set it up on Saturday keep us updated!

Hey Dave, what bulb combo did you decide to go with? Did you get your Aquatic set up yet?

 

[Seminoles76]

Any idea on why the coral's "melted" ? Anyone have any idea.

What do you think about Radion's vs Hydra's?

Considering on selling my Hydra's and getting Radion's. What do you think?

My guess is no nutrients with new set up and they were not happy.

From what I have seen I would say they are comparable and not worth the switch for what you would be gaining. I think with your Hybrid set up you will do great. Not too mention there are a lot of exceptional tanks out there running just Hydra....and no T5 Supp. If you switch anything I would just look at your bulb combo after a year and decide if it did well and if not try another bulb combo. The one thing I think that would be critical is getting the LED dialed in to match the T5 Supp depending on the bulb combo being used. For example. I doubt blasting cool white on the Hydra would be good if your running white tubes on the T5.

 

[pirate2876]

What do you think about Radion's vs Hydra's?

Considering on selling my Hydra's and getting Radion's. What do you think?

Doubtful, I run AI's and T5 and have success. Be aware that the white and UV spectrum on those can be very intense for all corals though. Also, 6" above the water sounds pretty close. Might want to factor that into the intensities.

 

[dave57]

Hey Dave, what bulb combo did you decide to go with? Did you get your Aquatic set up yet?

Hey yes! I’m happy to report it is setup and running, it’s currently running 4 blue plus bulbs however I’m waiting for my 2 coral plus bulbs to come in this week

 

[Seminoles76]

Hey yes! I’m happy to report it is setup and running, it’s currently running 4 blue plus bulbs however I’m waiting for my 2 coral plus bulbs to come in this week

Hey Dave, looks really good. Are you going to replace two Blue + with the Coral + tubes?

Post another pic once you get those Coral + in there. I think I am going to go with Two B+/Two Coral+

 

[dshots]

Would 2 primes and a t5 be enough to keep some sps and mainly LPS? I'm setting up my 3ft PA tank now. Still have not got my lights yet. Also, so you want a small amount of phosphate for the corals? I did not know that.

 

[Seminoles76]

Would 2 primes and a t5 be enough to keep some sps and mainly LPS? I'm setting up my 3ft PA tank now. Still have not got my lights yet. Also, so you want a small amount of phosphate for the corals? I did not know that.

That would be way more than enough for a 3 ft tank of LPS and would grow SPS up top in some hight par areas as well. You are correct that some phosphate and some nitrate are good for SPS.....and especially for LPS.